Create a Strong Password in 5 Simple Steps

Passwords provide the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your online accounts. Yet most people still aren’t taking passwords seriously. According to a PEW survey, while 91% of adults felt they have lost control of their personal information online, 41% have shared their password with others, 39% use the same or similar passwords across accounts, and 25% admit to using simpler, less secure passwords because they are easier to remember. Moreover, nearly two-thirds of respondents claimed to memorize their passwords, while a further 18% write passwords down on paper. How hard can it be to create a strong password?

Better password practice need not be difficult, though. To mark World Password Day we’d like to share some tips from our Digital Literacy training program – and show you that P455phr4535c4nb3f#n!

How To Create a Strong Password

It’s simple:

Pick 4-5 random, common words that are easy to remember (e.g “battle play mango staple”).

Group the words together (e.g “battleplaymangostaple”).

Swap letters with numbers that look similar (e.g “b4tt13pl4ym4ng0st4p13”).

Add some special characters (e.g “#b4tt13pl4ym4ng0st4p13%”).

If the resulting password is at least 14 characters, you now have a secure password, otherwise start over using different (longer) words.

Do’s

✅ Always use a mix of letters, numbers and symbols.

✅ A password should be at least 16 characters long. The longer the password, the better.

✅ Use different passwords for each account you create.

✅ Change your passwords regularly.

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Don’ts

❌Never use personal information in your password such as phone numbers, birthdays, etc.

❌ Avoidcommon words such as “password”, “love”, etc.

❌ Avoid using sequences such as ”abcd1234”, or letters positioned together on the keyboard like “qwerty”.

REMEMBER!

Use a password manager such as “KeePass” to create and manage long, randomly-generated passwords that are both difficult for you to remember and computers to guess. (e.g. 3djoyrb1therh1llo5skiIng#)